This workshop explores the QM Project and Processes and prepares you to be part of an initiative that positively impacts the design of online/blended courses and ultimately, learning and success for the learner. QM is designed to improve the quality of online/blended courses by establishing a peer-reviewed quality assurance review process. You will become familiar with QM standards and participate in a practice peer course review of an online course using the review tools.

Virtual student services and social media increase the GPA and persistence of Tri-C students! That’s the data talking – check out the specifics below.

Did you know that Tri-Cs Title III grant created an ecosystem of support for online students that supported face-to-face students as well? eAdvising, eLearning Orientation, online tutoring and other services have increased the GPA of students participating and supported completion and success. Check out what virtual student services can do!

Tri-C leveraged a League for Innovation grant to explore the use of a Facebook App to improve student engagement. Student persistence and GPA improved. Of students who used the app (8,661 enrolled):

“Active Users are 26% more likely to persist to the next semester compared to non-members of the App.

Passive Users are 65% more likely to persist to the next semester compared to non-members of the App.” (Rios-Aguilar & Deil-Amem, 2014, p. 9).

The study was funded through the League for Innovation by the Gates Foundation with researchers from University of Arizona and Claremont Graduate University. In other words, it’s legit! Check out the presentation we shared at the Learning Summit 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Members of the Office of eLearning and Innovation team are researching resources, trends and strategies for helping faculty use Social Media effectively in e-learning! Follow on Twitter at #EliSocMedia4u, #ecocon, and #lscon.

If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can still read the thoughts of eLi team members and other conference attendees with the following search links:

Harrisburg University of Science and Technology made headlines in September when it announced that it would block the use of social media on the campus network for five days.

Three months after the experiment, a post-mortem by the university says that many students and professors who initially disapproved of being forced to unplug for a week seemed to moderate their opinions once their connections had been restored. Furthermore, according to surveys and focus groups conducted by the university, many students said that during the so-called blackout they found lectures more interesting, enjoyed greater health and concentration, and devoted more time to their homework.

One student told the university’s provost, Eric D. Darr, “that he had to actually talk to his professor during the blackout,” the report notes.

It’s amazing how connected we are at this point. Cell phones, iPods, laptops, netbooks, tablets, always on and always connected to something. But is this a blessing, or a curse (or both!)? What do you think? Would you put your students on a social media blackout if you could?

Sending a Tweet just gets so many fingers out there so quickly. I’ve heard of teachers getting in touch with specialists in the community, specialists in the field, and being able to get someone to talk to their kids in the classroom.

A recent report published by EDUCAUSE has provided us with some insight into student views of technology. The results indicate eReaders aren’t taking off, and Facebook is far more popular than Twitter. Other interesting results from the survey included 96% of students saying they were on Facebook, with 7% of those respondents noting they used no privacy restrictions.

Want to know what the future workforce thinks of technology, how it uses search engines, social networking, and online collaborative tools? The recently released ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology gives some excellent insights into trends in college students’ technology ownership, perceptions, skills, and habits.

The 2010 report was recently released by EDUCAUSE, a non-profit organization that supports the advancement of technology in higher education. The report is based on a survey from the spring of 2010 of over 36,950 freshmen and seniors at 100 four-year institutions and students at 27 two-year institutions.

LinkedIn is releasing a tool that may be embraced by Career Services departments at colleges nationwide. The new tool, Career Explorer, will help students build their professional network before graduation. It does this by identifying common characteristics of other LinkedIn users who have been successful in the student’s field (common internships, programs, employers, degrees, etc.).

New LinkedIn Tool Helps College Students Visualize Their Career Paths

LinkedIn has launched a tool aimed at current college students that the company says will provide students with “unique, data-driven insights to help them build their careers.” LinkedIn’s Career Explorer is a collaborative effort between the professional network and professional services and accountancy firm PwC.

Career Explorer aims to help students chart their potential career paths and to help them build a professional network pre-graduation. Based on data aggregated from LinkedIn’s 80 million members, Career Explorer will map out the paths that others in similar fields have taken. It will also offer resources including relevant job opportunities, salary information, and educational and experience required in certain industries or fields.

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// The Career Explorer tool will also point to those within students’ networks who may be in a position to help them advance their careers.

That’s just what he Provost of Harrisburg University of Science and Technology is doing this week. For the duration of this week, Facebook, Twitter, and other popular social media services will be blocked on campus. What do you think? Is this a silly idea, or a constructor technology fast?

Harrisburg University of Science and Technology is going one step further with a “social-media blackout.” Starting Monday, the Pennsylvania institution will block Facebook, Twitter, AOL Instant Messenger, and MySpace on the campus network for a week. Faculty and staff members will be affected as well as students.

“Telling students to imagine a time before Facebook is like telling them to imagine living in a world with dinosaurs,” said Eric D. Darr, Harrisburg’s executive vice president and provost. “It’s not real. What we’re doing is trying to make it real.”

By blocking Web sites—instead of just discouraging use—the university will give its entire community a shared experience, Mr. Darr said. He insisted the restricted access wasn’t censorship.

“We’re not denying students, staff, and faculty the right to connect to Facebook since the university network is only one avenue to get to these sites,” he said. “They can drive down the road to a place with wireless if they really want.”

David Parry, an assistant professor of emerging media and communications at the University of Texas at Dallas, has run several social-media fasts in his classes, where his students study such media. Because social media has become so common in the lives of students, he said, it can be harder for them to see how to advance the technology beyond its conventional uses. Asking students to choose to refrain for a short period of time can help them discover more productive uses for the media, he has found.

Some faculty who have trouble traveling, or being away from home, are finding new and interesting alternatives to a traditional sabbatical. Technologies such as Skype, YouTube, and Facebook are making it easier than ever to connect with anyone, anywhere, at any time. They’re also facilitating new learning experiences for faculty and students. How have you used technology for personal or professional development?

The Virtual Sabbatical

Patricia Easteal took a sabbatical in England last year—without ever stepping foot outside her front door in Australia.

The University of Canberra law professor took the digital trip as part of a research project exploring a different take on the hoary academic tradition. She relied on Skype and YouTube to communicate with Durham University students and faculty members.

Could the sabbatical of the future be virtual?

“We did not undertake this project with the intention of advocating it as a replacement,” Ms. Easteal said. “We were simply testing it as an alternative, especially for groups that have difficulty traveling and/or being absent from home for a long time.”

Her one regret? Not having the chance to listen to the grand organ music at the nearby Durham Cathedral, a place BBC reported to be the country’s “most beloved building.”

Though she isn’t aware of other universities trying something similar, she hopes the idea will catch on.

“Hopefully, this will help people think outside of the proverbial box,” she said. “They can, indeed, develop international collaborations, networking, and be a visible part of another university community without leaving home.”